Weekend Wanderings

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Regarding saddest lawsuit ever – I don’t think it’s fair to judge that way. The couple that sued are not saying they do not love their daughter. They are saying, had someone not screwed up the test, they would have had an abortion. And abortion is legal – regardless how one feels about it. The person who performed the test did not do it correctly – it resulted in the wrong diagnosis. This is malpractice at it’s most basic.

I disagree. Those tests have come out wrong one way or another multiple times (which reminds me that no technology or human can have 100% control over a situation). So what… now every time someone has a DS (or other “abnormal”) child that requires extra care, they get to sue because the test was wrong (even higher health care costs for all of us)? Is abortion legal? Yep. Does that make it right? Nope. (In the end, it’s not a legal issue for me. It’s a moral issue. Every life has value.)

I agree with you, Amy. They sued for “wrongful birth.” Their other children, and probably their daughter too, will be able to understand that someday. I can’t even imagine having to explain such a thing.

It’s very sad, the rate at which children with Down’s are aborted. We saw a boy with Down’s, about 5 years old, in a restaurant a few years ago. And I realized that (at least in LA, where we lived at the time) you hardly EVER see kids with Down’s anymore. I don’t think it is because they are being conceived at a lower rate than they were back in the ’70s.

The test was done incorrectly. This is why they are suing. Not b/c their daughter has DS, not b/c they don’t love their daughter or they got hit with the odds of having a child with a chromosomal defect , or special needs. They requested a test. Someone incorrectly did that test. If a tumor was found on one of your organs & someone did the biopsy incorrectly then told you, “Hey, good news, it’s benign!” And then you later discovered it was indeed cancerous – you are at a disadvantage for treatment. There are false positives for many tests – but THIS was not the case FOR THIS TEST. If the test had been done properly, it had a whatever chance of being a false positive (though rarely a false negative) – and the couple would have had an opportunity for further testing. But instead, the test was done wrong – and the incorrect answer given, so nothing more was done. This is malpractice at it’s most basic – “mal” means “badly”. Someone performed their job badly, and it resulted in a decision being made that cannot be taken back. Technology is not 100%, and you will typically find me on the side saying this same thing. This was not technology’s issue. This was incompetence in someone performing a task at their job.

Maeghan, Your argument can be made on the reverse side. There have been families that have told their child will be born with severe birth defects and will not live very long. They were counseled to consider terminating their baby due to these issues. They chose not too. The baby was born and had no disabilities. A technology issue? Incompetence? I think not, it was honoring and valuing the sanctity of life.

The family alleges the test was done incorrectly. Which is not the same as technology not being able to see in to the very structures of DNA to determine if there is a problem or not. I am also aware of people who have had suspected issues – I was one of them. It was never suggested I abort, b/c the “problem” was found at about 38 weeks. There were people standing by to take care of her if the problem was as suspected…but turns out, she was fine. It wasn’t something that would have been able to be predicted with a blood draw or amnio.

And Jadzia – My mother became pregnant with me when she was a single soldier, still married to her contract husband (though no longer in a relationship with him), living overseas. I’d be a fool to think her life was so uncomplicated that giving birth & raising me alone was her first thought. Pregnancy can stop a military career in it’s tracks. Especially at the time I was born. Women had 6 weeks from the time they gave birth to get back in that uniform & do their fitness test.

Knowing you could have been an abortion, or even put up for adoption isn’t quite as damaging as you’d think. I empathize with my mother’s situation. It would be hard to give birth in a foreign country, live alone with a child & be in the military. This was during peace time, but every soldier thinks about what they will do with a child if they are deployed. My birth did radically change her career & life. It’s just a fact. Not anything I need to be upset over. My mother was told she would never have children. So she planned on that. And was in a lifestyle not conducive to child-rearing.